Good Night, Saturn

Saturn: GM's Stab at Long-Term Relevance Goes Straight Through Its Heart
(Image Credits: Treehugger.com)

As this Washington Post article details, Penske Automotive has backed down from a deal to acquire the Saturn brand from GM. Penske had hoped to acquire the Saturn dealers, leaving a partner manufacturing firm to build the cars to be sold. It was a sensible plan; Penske has long been a force in retailing and the dealership world, yet he has very little experience (if any) on building cars (Indy, excepted). The obvious hitch was that there were no automakers out there who are so flush with cash that they could acquire a brand like Saturn.
I did find one of the descriptions of Saturn in the article a bit overblown. For example, does Saturn really have a " '...passionate customer base'?" I can't remember too many people salivating over the Vue, but then again, I know people who like cars. I won't make light of what is clearly a tragic consequence of GM's mismanagement. Saturn could have worked, in fact, I'll even go so far to say that it should have worked. A company dedicated to customer service, safe, cheap and efficient small cars. Gosh, that sounds like a recipe for a turnaround, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it was--like so many other GM decisions of the past two decades--a reaction to what Toyota, Honda, and other Japanese automakers had already done. If the automobile market is to return to a sustainable level, some of the saturation needs to be wrung out. It won't be pretty, it won't be popular, but it is necessary. The first one down the drain just happens to be "a different kind of car company."